Strings of Crimson pearls
by silverbluebaka
Summary: When immortals grieve, their tears dissolve the red string of fate and they weep crimson pearls. Demons and spirits crave the power contained within the tiny orbs of pain, fate and love made solid. While Watanuki mourns, threats gather, and Doumeki's grandchildren discover their bedtime stories were all true.


**Author's note:** Apologies to anyone who dislikes OCs... there are a few new Doumekis in this story.

Feedback is welcome, I hope you like it and I will update as soon as I can

-SBB

* * *

Sixteen year old Doumeki Kyou had spent the last two days watching his dying grandfather talking to birds. He wasn't sure what the birds were saying to him, but his grandfather usually smiled at them. Sometimes he cried. Frequently he tried to get out of his bed. When that happened, another bird would appear out of nowhere and whisper a warning to Kyou's father or his uncle, who would run in and hold Kyou's grandfather down. His grandfather always struggled, but he was too weak to fight for long, and as soon as he settled, another bird would appear.

Kyou had seen this happen so often that he had stopped being surprised at magically appearing birds. Kyou's mother had tried shoo-ing the birds out of the bedroom, but his father and uncle had insisted that they stay. Kyou could tell from the looks they gave the birds and each other that they didn't like it, but he had heard them tell his mother that if the birds weren't there, his grandfather would try even harder to get out of bed.

And when the birds could appear out of thin air, how would you keep them out anyway?

* * *

On the third day, two birds appeared.

The first one appeared to his uncle during breakfast. As it landed on his uncle's shoulder to whisper in his ear, Kyou watched his face crumble. Moments later a cry was heard from the bedroom, and the whole family knew that Doumeki Shizuka was dead. The bird was already gone.

The second bird appeared in the late afternoon. The whole family had gathered to eat, and though no one felt like eating, all the adults were drinking, making toasts to Shizuka, who had insisted they enjoy his sake after he was gone. Kyou's uncle, the eldest son and new head of the shrine was making a toast, when the bird appeared on Kyou's father's shoulder and whispered its secret message. The whole family watched as Kyou's father looked at the small peach-wood ring he wore on his hand.

The ring had belonged to Shizuka, a gift from the strange owner of the shop that Shizuka and his sons frequented. Shizuka had used to tell Kyou, his little sister and their cousins stories when they were small about the ring being magic, and how he had used it to fight ghosts and monsters. A few days ago, Shizuka had given it to Kyou's father. Kyou had expected his uncle to be bothered by this, but instead he had smiled and nodded when Kyou's father hesitated to accept it.

Kyou's father had gotten very drunk that night, had sworn loudly, and cursed the shop keeper and Shizuka both, had cried and mourned although his father still lived. Kyou's uncle had patted his back, poured the sake, and quietly warned him to be careful what he wished for. Kyou's father had looked at the ring like he was afraid of it.

He looked at it the same way now.

"Watanuki's calling me to the shop," Kyou's father finally said.

Kyou's uncle looked at him over his cup of sake, "will you go?"

Kyou watched his father twist the ring around his finger. "Not today. Tomorrow, after the prayers."

But Kyou's father didn't go the next morning. A bird appeared at his shoulder at breakfast, whispering its message into his ear. He shoo-ed it away in annoyance, telling it "I'll come later."

Kyou wasn't sure when 'later' was supposed to be, and apparently neither were the birds, as they came every hour that day, on the hour. Kyou's father had yelled 'later' at them, waved them away, thrown cups at them and still they came. When the 3 o'clock bird appeared he had burst into tears and begged it, "please, just let me bury my father... just let me grieve for one day – you have my whole life, just give me one day..."

Kyou had never seen his father cry like that. The sight terrified him, and the bird seemed to feel the same, because after watching him cry, it disappeared without delivering its message.

After that, the house felt unbearable, so Kyou went to find his little sister Yuki. Eventually, he found her in Shizuka's study, going through his books.

"What are you doing," he asked, looking over the twelve year old's shoulder.

"Looking for the bunny's book," she replied, turning over the page.

Kyou looked down at her confusedly, "what bunny?"

"That one," she said, pointing to a fat, black, toy rabbit sitting on the desk.

Kyou fell over with a shout of surprise when the rabbit introduced itself, "Hello! Pleased to meet you, Makona's name is Makona!"

"You can talk? How can a rabbit talk?!" Kyou demanded of the rabbit.

The talking rabbit smiled. "Makona can talk because Makona is a Makona, not a rabbit."

Without looking up from her search, Yuki spoke, "The bunny needs to borrow one of Grandda's books, one of the magic books. He asked me because dad wouldn't help him. We need to find it and take it to the shop keeper."

Kyou opened his mouth to point out that there was no such thing as magic books, but at the sight of his sister talking to a rabbit he changed his mind. His grandfather had always insisted that magic was real, and he had been looking at magic birds for days... He sat down next to his little sister, "how can I help?"

Yuki held up a piece of paper that had some circular lines all over it, "a page that looks like this, the bunny said,"

"Ma-ko-na!"

"It's not really much to go on" Yuki continued, "but I'm sure Grandda showed me something like this last week, in one of these books."

Kyou picked a book and opened the first page. "Is this it?" he asked the rabbit.

"You found it!" The little rabbit began leaping around the room in joy, singing, "you found it, you found it! The Doumeki children fooooouuuuund it!"

Yuki was less impressed, "I've been looking for ages! How come you found it straight away?" she complained.

Before Kyou could tease her that he was just lucky, Makona replied, oddly seriously, "It was inevitable."

Kyou and Yuki exchanged glances. Their grandfather had used to always say that too, but before they could ask what the rabbit meant, it leapt to the doorway and beckoned them outside.

Leaping onto Yuki's shoulder, Makona cried "To the shop!" and pointed forward. As the two walked out of the house, Kyou followed them holding the book. Kyou's father really hadn't wanted to go to the shop, but somehow Kyou didn't think he could stop himself from heading there. He'd never been, but his grandfather had spent a lot of his time there, and told him stories about the place. Kyou's father had told him about the crazy old shop keeper who granted wishes as well, but he had stopped believing the stories a long time ago.

Even as Kyou watched Makona tell one of the disappearing birds that they were all heading for the shop, Kyou still wasn't sure what he believed.


End file.
